I Tried a ‘Coffee Nap’ and It Is Beyond Wonderful

I discovered the concept of Coffee Nap as I was scrolling through my Instagram.

‘Coffee and naps!’ You would say.

My reaction was the same. I was stunned about this oxymoron. The last time I checked coffee was used to awaken you and not supposed to consume before you sleep.

Even though the idea was absurd and very clickbait-y, I was intrigued. I looked on the internet and to my shock, it turned out to be an actual, scientific thing that people all over the world are trying and loving.

What is a Coffee Nap

As the name suggests, it means that you drink a cup of coffee before you go for a short sleep. Here, the catch is that it is only applicable if the sleep is as short as 20 minutes or less. When you wake up, you are going to feel fresh and ready to conquer the world.

According to a study, this is even more effective than just coffee to energize you.

The science behind this is fascinating.

According to Healthline, adenosine is a chemical in your body that makes you feel drowsy. The entire day, your body keeps on producing it in small quantities until it is sufficient enough to put you to sleep at night time.

Coffee works by interfering with adenosine and preventing it from bonding. Caffeine fits into several of the receptors that are normally filled by adenosine.

This way the adenosine molecules are unable to put you to sleep or make you drowsy and you end up feeling refreshed after a nice cup of coffee.

Since the caffeine molecules can't bind with all the receptors, this allows some receptors to be taken by adenosine.

However, the trick lies in the fact that when you fall asleep, adenosine actually starts to fall in quantity. If you have had coffee before sleeping, this allows the caffeine to bind efficiently since there is lesser competition, thus giving greater strength to you.

In addition to this, caffeine takes about 20 minutes to be ingested. Therefore a shorter nap is possible before caffeine reaches your bloodstream and wakes your brain.

My experience with the Coffee Nap

After reading all the articles and researches, I was ready to dive right into a nap.

I followed the instruction given in the article by Vox.

I started by making a cup of coffee and noting down all the work I was supposed to accomplish in that afternoon. Since I had a lot of school work and some editing to go over, I was more than excited to get some extra push for the day.

In this experiment, I opted for a nice, tall glass of iced coffee. Since I am not able to drink hot coffee quickly and you are supposed to drain the cup in one go, regular coffee was not the way to go.

I set an alarm for 20 minutes and immediately went to sleep.

I did end up falling asleep. However, I was semi-sleepy.

As the phone rang, I woke up feeling energized and ready to take over the world. I spent the entire afternoon and the evening working non-stop on my graded assignments. I was even able to write half of a story for Medium.

I felt very alert and awake.

What benefits I noticed

Was active the entire day.

Got more than the usual work done.

Felt energized after sleeping.

Final thoughts

Based on my experience, I would say that it definitely works.

Usually, when I wake from my afternoon naps, I have to spend 15 minutes just remembering my name. I am extremely groggy. This is why I usually avoid naps in the day time.

However, coffee before the nap had the opposite effect. After I woke up I felt fresh and energized. I just jumped off my bed and started work immediately. I can even say that the quality of work was better than usual.

I would definitely try it again whenever I need a quick and extra boost to work.